Throwback Thursday #14: Rothbard’s 90th Birthday, and ‘Mozart Was a Red’The Libertarian Founder's Play on the Religious Sect of Anti-Religious Objectivists

Murray Rothbard’s 90th birthday has passed as of just over a week ago, and here we are, in the glorious future fueled by his legacy of libertarianism, which has now become somewhat of a household name. So, might we take a moment to light-heartedly celebrate this milestone?

As it so happens, we have just the perfect memento to present for this occasion, for it’s also been 30 years since the first performance of Mozart Was a Red, which was a somewhat impromptu play Rothbard put together based upon his experiences with Ayn Rand. In it, names have changed, but the characters come through vividly clear, in particular the two most prominent figures, Rothbard himself and Ayn Rand. His ironic satire is at top-notch level here as well as being gut-bustingly hilarious.

But I’ll save most of the commentary for this synopsis, which could not be expressed more perfectly:

With her flowing cape, intense eyes, and long cigarette holder, Rand was the very picture of eccentricity; she sometimes wore a tricornered hat, and at one point carried a gold-knobbed cane. Her thick Russian accent added to the exoticism. It is a measure of Rand’s powerful personality – and the real key to understanding the Rand cult – that, after a while, many of her leading followers began to speak with a noticeable accent, although each and every one of them had been born in North America.

This Russification process was especially pronounced in Nathaniel Branden, her leading disciple. Branden delivered his lectures on the “Basic Principles of Objectivism” in a sonorous singsong voice with a very definite Slavic undertone. Pompous, dogmatic, and utterly self-infatuated, Branden was the second-in-command and chief enforcer of a cult that demanded total obedience and agreement on every conceivable subject – in the name of individualism. Any deviation from the Randian line – and they had a line on everything – was taken as evidence of “bad premises,” and grounds for expulsion from the inner circle.

JONATHAN (bounding up and pacing): “Religion is evil, which means anti-mind, which means anti-life, which means anti-reason, which means anti-reality.” (He resumes his seat.)

CARSON (looking fondly at JONATHAN): “Well done, comrade.”

And,

JONATHAN: “You criticized, instead of asking questions. You mocked like a hooligan, instead of showing proper reverence. And to whom? To this woman who has brought to the world the knowledge that A is A, and that 2 and 2 equal 4!”

Jeffrey Tucker does a brilliantly stunning performance as Jonathan (the parody of Nathaniel Branden) in the original production put on in 1986, bouncing and trotting around, as would be expected — though, I’m not entirely sure who the other actors were. But without much more adieu, here’s a recording of the original production (ignore the intermittent text; somebody apparently used trial software to edit the video):

And, here’s a more recent production of the play performed at Porcfest 2015, with better audio and visuals, also including Tucker’s genius antics:

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A Christian market anarchist with an associate's degree in web design. Specializes in writing about theology and philosophy. He is one of Altar & Throne's co-founders and co-admins. He has an avid interest in economics and seeks to incorporate cultural parallels to libertarian insights. Currently exploring Girard's mimetic theory of desire and violence, and how that relates to the underlying structure of the state. A fan of theologians as diverse as David Bentley Hart, N.T. Wright, Michael Heiser, and Thomas Talbott. Site admin for New Apologetics, and one of the hosts of the Youtube show The Wondering Pilgrims.

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